Philippine Arena fulfils its vision as hundreds of thousands flock to arena events

The Philippine Arena is surpassing all expectations about its role in community life, attracting more than 500,000 people to events within the first three months of the opening of the world’s largest indoor arena in Manila. The arena is changing the way people gather together to celebrate in Manila.

The biggest crowd so far, welcomed in the New Year as one million people flocked to the grounds of the arena to watch the New Year fireworks display which followed a massive entertainment concert on December 31 organized in support of the Iglesia Ni Cristo’s (Church of Christ)  Kabayan Ko, Kapatid Ko humanitarian outreach  project.

The New Year crowd came hot on the heels of the arena smashing the world record for a basketball event, when 52,600 people attended  the opening of the Philippine Basketball League season in the arena in October last year.

The Populous designed Philippine Arena was commissioned  by the INC as a gift to the community and is situated on a green field site north of Manila. It is of a scale not previously seen before in the Philippines and has been masterplanned to enable 50,000 people to gather inside and a further 50,000 to gather at the “live site” outside the arena, to share in major events.

The vision and inspiration for the arena was to make it a true gathering place – where all the community could come together.  The arena is fast becoming to Manila what the Harbour Bridge is to Sydney. On New Year’s Eve it was their Sydney Harbour Bridge night.